DD Sports decides to brand monthly packages

Doordarshan (DD), which has decided to brand monthly sports packages with peppy names to make the events more marketable to advertisers. All the sports events in the package will be exclusively aired live on DD Sports. Cricket, hockey, football and tennis are all part of this bonanza this month. `April Mania', will consist of the remaining India-Australia matches, Davis Cup World Cup Quarterfinals, Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Finals, Italian Cup Soccer Finals, Soccer World Cup Qualifiers, National Football League Matches, ITF Circuit Tennis Tournament and All-India Beighton Cup Hockey Tournament Final.

Although DD has come out with the novelty of packaging these events in a unique manner to market them better, DD officials are not talking much about the initiative. However, cricket is an exception, which is being marketed by Buddha Films for DD. As per the deal for the BCCI (Board for Cricket Control in India) matches, Buddha Films is to give a guaranteed amount to DD for a four-and-a-half-year contract.

According to the details of the deals between DD and various sports organisations, DD has paid/to pay Rs 46 crore per annum to BCCI for all international matches for five years from 1999 onwards. Similarly, DD has paid/is to pay Rs 8.5 crore for 2000-2001 and Rs 10 crore for 2001-2002 to All-India Football Federation for all international matches played in India.

The rights fee for the World Group Davis Cup Matches is Rs 20 lakh and for the Davis Cup Zonal matches Rs 10 lakh for five years beginning January 1999. For acquiring TV rights for the hockey matches, DD has been paying Rs 5 lakh per international match, Rs 5 lakh again for national finals and Rs 1.25 lakh for national semi-finals to the Indian Hockey Federation.